Most Wonderful Time of the Year
On October, Festival Season and Other Updates
It's October! Happy best month of the year! I hope you're all enjoying watching as many horror films as you can while eating all the candy you allegedly bought for trick or treaters.
I've not managed to organise myself to do any Grave Offerings related October fun this year sadly, but I think I know what I want to do in 2026. It won't be an illustrated film recommendation every day like last time, but I'll be aiming to do it every other day. Something like 15 posts or thereabouts.
But I've been quiet on here lately and just wanted to send a quick update of what I've been up to, where I'll be tabling during comic and zine fair season, and what new things I'm working on. I've also been writing a couple of illustrated film essays that aren't quite ready yet but I hope to send out before the end of the year.
Without further ado...
TAGS Festival
First up is TAGS Festival this weekend (Sat Oct 25th and Sun Oct 26th). I'll be tabling both days so if you're in (or near) Edinburgh, come say hi. The venue - Fruitmarket - is right next to the train station which is incredibly handy if you're travelling into the city for it. I'll be on Table 14.
I'll also be on a couple of panels during the festival. On Saturday, at 3.30pm, I'll be discussing the Luddites, AI art, and what artists can do to resist our modern tech dystopia.
I've been putting together a slideshow of silly memes, quotes, and depressing graphs for the audience to look at during the talk so they don't have to look at my face. Here are a couple:
I'll also be on a panel on Sunday with Eve Greenwood and Chris Lau Manson (also at 3.30pm) in which we'll be discussing the state of the Scottish comic scene. I think this should be a really fun, wide-ranging chat about what we're optimistic about, what our worries are, and what we'd like to see happen.
I Saw the TV Glow Print
Something new that I'll have on my table will be an all-new print of my I Saw the TV Glow illustration (from this piece I wrote about it last year).
I loved this film at the time and my admiration for it has only grown.
This, like my (now sold out) The Bear print, is 19cm x 19cm and printed on 300gsm Fedrigoni Tintoretto Gesso cardstock. Limited to 50 signed and numbered editions.
If you'd like to order one online, you can do so here.
Edinburgh Zine Fair
If you were hoping to pick up a print or anything else of mine at TAGS but can't make it, you'll have another chance the following week at Edinburgh Zine Fair!
I'll be tabling both days (Sat Nov 1st and Sun Nov 2nd).
I had such fun at this last year and can't wait to table at it again.
Thought Bubble Festival
Last, but by no means least, I'll be tabling at Thought Bubble in Harrogate on Sat Nov 15th and Sun Nov 16th. My last comic/zine event of the year.
The last time I was at Thought Bubble was signing copies of Suzanne at the Avery Hill Publishing table in 2022. I actually can't remember the last time I tabled under my own name there. Probably something like 2014/2015? A long time ago basically. Really excited to be back behind a table at, arguably, the most important UK comic festival of the calendar.
You'll be able to find me in the Comixology Hall at Table C36.
An additional exciting element this year is that there's an exhibition of Avery Hill artists at the Mercer Gallery. From their press release:
Vision and Labour: Making Comics exhibition
The art of Avery Hill Publishing
Dates: 18 October 2025 to 26 April 2026
Featuring the work of: Kristyna Baczynski, Tim Bird, Katriona Chapman, Tom Humberstone, Charlot Kristensen, B.Mure, Owen D. Pomery, Claire Scully, J. Webster Sharp, Rachel Smith, Lizzy Stewart, Lucy Sullivan, Zoe Thorogood, Donya Todd, Tillie Walden, and George Wylesol.
The Mercer Art Gallery has teamed up with Avery Hill Publishing to create an exhibition showcasing some of today’s most exciting comics' creators. Created in partnership with the Thought Bubble Comic Art Festival, the exhibition offers a fascinating glimpse into the work of leading comic artists, and an important snapshot of the UK comics landscape over the past decade.
On display will be original artwork by 16 diverse artists, shown alongside their finished books, and filmed interviews. The exhibition will give insights into the creative process of making comics, and the different working practices of each artist, ranging from meticulous ink drawings to spectacular, digitally-created imagery.
Check out this beautiful poster by Kristyna Baczynski (and see if you can spot the Suzanne cameo)...
Can't wait to see this show in person.
You can read an interview with the incredible Katriona Chapman - who, along with Karen Southworth at the Mercer Gallery, has been putting the exhibition together - here. You can also see a video of the exhibition coming together here.
I'll be part of one of the gallery tours led by Kat on Saturday at 11.30am.
I Know the Way Out
Chrissy Williams and I will be debuting our new poetry comic collection - I Know the Way Out - at Thought Bubble.
It's a 24 page book, collecting three poetry comics (First of Many, Static, and I Want to Run Away to The Woods). They're all thematically linked and form something of a beginning, middle and end. It's currently being riso-printed by Out of the Blueprint in four colours: black, blue, aqua and fluo pink.
Here's the cover...
Out of the Blueprint were kind enough to do a test print of the cover and I couldn't be happier with how the colours are interacting with each other. One of the delights of riso-printing is the unexpected. I'm already delighted with how the blue is soaking into the top of the page like watercolour.
And here's a couple of pages from I Want to Run Away to the Woods...
I'm immensely proud of how this book has come together and can't wait to show it to people! If you can't make it to Thought Bubble in November, but want to make sure you get a copy, you can pre-order it here.
Book Week Scotland
Book Week Scotland is fast approaching (Nov 17th-23rd) and the Scottish Book Trust were kind enough to ask me to adapt one of their short stories for sharing on instagram.
Every year, writers are asked to submit short stories around a theme. This year the theme was Friendship. I was asked to adapt a piece by Aileen MacAlister called A Blizzard in a Teapot. I think the piece will go live during Book Week but here are a couple of panels...
I'm currently experimenting with a rougher, looser style. I think these are still a little on the tight side for my liking, but it'll take me a while to really embrace messiness considering how precise my linework usually is. To the casual observer this may not seem much different from my other work but this feels, to me, like a huge stylistic pivot and one that I'm really excited about.
This change is something I've been keen to do for two reasons:
- I have about three or four non-fiction comics I'd like to do that will involve being responsive to events/breaking news and travelling to interview people. I want to make these (relatively) quickly and publish them here - rather than pitch them and wait for someone's permission to make them. Then maybe collect a few into a zine at some point. A simpler, sketchier style would help me turn these around a bit faster.
- I've got hyper-mobile joints and have recently been experiencing some wrist and arm pain due to, I assume, overdoing the drawing. I'm assured this will heal in the next month or so, and I'm doing all the wrist exercises to help that happen/avoid this in the future. But the past couple of months of pain and uncertainty has made me consider the mortality of my drawing arm both in terms of what I want to do with it while it still works, and how I can ensure it works as long as possible. So: simpler, less fussy lines!
Libraries in Pop Culture
Outside of comics, one of my favourite illustration jobs of 2025 was this piece for the National Library of Scotland.
I drew four illustrations to accompany an article by Katie Goh about the presence of libraries in pop culture and it was a wonderful excuse to draw Buffy and the Scooby Gang and get paid for it.
Here's an early warm-up rough I did of the Scooby Gang. Willow is so much fun to draw and I wish someone would hire me to draw a Willow comic.
I started doing colour separations of the Buffy illustration to see what a three colour (black, aqua, fluo pink) riso print might look like. Email/DM me if you think you'd like one and maybe I'll look into printing a limited run!
Why (You Shouldn't) Poison Rats
An illustration for a piece in the latest issue of Current Affairs magazine. The piece is about why we shouldn't be poisoning rats. I can't find it online yet, but you can buy a physical copy of the magazine here.
Very happy with how this illustration turned out!
Horror Posters
I wanted to end on something at least moderately horror-related so here are some film posters I've made out of some of the illustrations I did for the Horror Month in 2023...
Phew! That is a much longer newsletter than I intended. Sorry. Evidence that I should probably try and post shorter updates a little more often.
Happy Halloween friends!
Hopefully see some of you at a zine fair or comic festival in the next month or so.